WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL SEEDED SECOND IN NCAA REGIONALSThe 11th-ranked Women’s Volleyball team, seeded second in the Pacific Region, will open NCAA Division II post-season play Thursday at a familiar site...Coach Tom Black’s Tritons will face Cal State L.A. in the first round of the eight-team Pacific Regional at Cal State San Bernardino’s Coussoulis Arena...First serve is at 2:30 PM...The team prevailing in that contest will go against the winner of Cal Poly Pomona vs. Western Oregon in one Friday semi-final at 5:00 PM...The Regional Championship match, whose victor will advance to the NCAA Elite Eight, Dec. 4-6, is slated for Saturday at 7:00 PM.

UCSD, which finished second to CSU San Bernardino in the CCAA race, comes in 21-6 after splitting its final two conference outings on the road last weekend...Friday night at Humboldt State, the Tritons hit .263 as a team and got a career high 20 kills from freshman Katie Condon in knocking off the Lumberjacks, 3-1 (27-2, 25-22, 18-25, 25-10)...HSU, which gave UCSD trouble at RIMAC Arena in October, proved tough to handle early...The Tritons rebounded from a 24-21 deficit to capture the first set and trailed, 23-22, in the second but rallied again as Condon sandwiched a pair of kills around an ace by senior Michelle Torres to put her club up 2-0...After dropping game three, UCSD used a 17-2 run to hammer Humboldt in the final set...Senior Rebecca Bailey and junior Sylvia Schmidt added 16 and 12 kills respectively and junior setter Elaine Chen handed out an even 50 assists.

The Tritons didn’t have enough gas left in the tank Saturday, concluding the grueling NorCal trek with a 3-2 (23-25, 25-27, 25-21, 25-23, 15-11) loss to Sonoma State...It was the second time this season that UCSD has been tagged with a 3-2 defeat after winning the first two sets and this one came against a Seawolf squad that the Tritons had flattened, 3-0, at home last month...Bailey (16), Schmidt (15) and freshman Hillary Williamson (14) all reached double figures in the kills department, Chen registered 58 assists and libero Roxanne Brunsting had 31 digs (giving her 53 for the weekend) to go with four aces.

MEN’S BASKETBALL TAKES ON PACIFIC AFTER OPENING LOSS AT SDSUSecond-year Coach Chris Carlson’s Men’s Basketball team continues its Division I pre-conference tour this week when it travels to Stockton to take on Pacific out of the Big West Conference...Pacific lost its only game to date, 68-56, at Cal on Saturday...The Tigers defeated both Cal State Stanislaus and Chico State of the CCAA in exhibition contests.

UCSD takes an 0-1 record into the clash with Pacific after dropping its season opener, 59-40, at San Diego State...The Tritons gave up the first nine points against the Aztecs but used a 15-0 run to grab an eight-point advantage late in the first half and led 21-19 at halftime...SDSU charged back after the break, going ahead by five in the first 1:35...But UCSD responded with five straight to tie it at 26...The Aztecs then responded with seven straight and pulled away in the final 10 minutes...Point guard Kelvin Kim led the Tritons with 11 points but it was solid defense, holding the taller Aztecs to just 36.7% shooting from the floor, and rebounding (junior Darryl Lawlor paced UCSD with 10) that paved the way in the first half...Carlson got 21 points from his bench, including seven apiece from redshirt sophomore Casey Ryan and freshman Christian Hatch.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL VICTORIOUS IN OPENERAfter winning its season opener at home Sunday, Coach Charity Elliott’s Women’s Basketball team heads to Bellingham, WA this weekend to play in the CCAA/GNAC Challenge...The Tritons will take on Seattle Pacific Friday and then challenge host Western Washington Saturday.

Seniors Michelle Osier (21 pts./6 rebounds) and Alexis Gaskin (19/8) carried the load as UCSD knocked off visiting Dixie State, 71-61, in Sunday's debut...The Tritons led by 13 at the break and extended the margin before a late Rebel run tightened up the final score...Transfer point guard Leilani Martin put together a nice line in her Triton opener, accounting for 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals...Sophomore Annette Ilg chipped in with 10 points

The Tritons played crosstown D-I rival USD tough early before falling, 66-51, in its final exhibition last Friday night...Senior Alexis Gaskin scored 14 points and pulled down eight boards in that one.

MEN'S WATER POLO SHOOTS FOR 15TH WWPA TITLEIf, as expected, the seeding remains unchanged after last weekend's play, the eighth-ranked Men's Water Polo team will enter the Western Water Polo Assn. (WWPA) Championship at Claremont, seeded second and matched up at 2:30 PM Friday with the winner of the UC Santa Cruz-Claremont play-in game...A triumph in that game would move the Tritons into Saturday's 11:30 AM semi-final, likely against UC Davis...The championship game is scheduled for 4:00 PM Sunday...Defending champion Loyola Marymount is the top seed.

A 14-time WWPA titleist, UCSD last won the crown in 2006...The Tritons boast an 18-10 record in 2008 and against the primary WWPA contenders are 0-3 vs. Loyola Marymount, 2-0 vs. UC Davis and 1-0 vs. Santa Clara... All three losses to LMU have been by one goal...Coach Denny Harper, who notched his 500th career victory early in the season, can call on four players who have accounted for more than 45 goalseach--A.J. Kotanjian, Daniel Garcia, Steven Donohoe and Adi Jerkovic.

WOMEN’S SOCCER FALLS IN SECOND ROUND NCAA PLAYThe 2008 season came to an end Saturday for Coach Brian McManus’s young Women’s Soccer team with a, 3-1, loss to host Seattle Pacific in the second round of the NCAA Playoffs...Nineteenth-ranked UCSD, which had 14 freshmen on the roster and a slew of veterans struggling with injuries, scored a 1-0 (OT) victory over BYU-Hawaii in Thursday’s first round to reach its rendezvous with No. 4 Seattle Pacific...The Falcons had a first round bye...UCSD finished the season 15-4-4.

Freshman Shelby Wong was the hero against BYU-Hawaii, pulling down a pass from fellow freshman Sarah McTigue and drilling it past Seasider keeper Becky Ploeger three minutes and 16 seconds into the second overtime period...It was Wong’s first career goal and McTigue’s team-leading seventh assist...The Tritons were in command throughout regulation but could not get the finish offensively...They outshot BYU, 18-14, on the game and goalkeeper Jessica McGovern turned away four shots in recording shutout No. 11 of her senior campaign.

Well-rested SPU (18-1-2) was more than the Tritons could handle in round two...The Falcons had a wide edge in the shot column (26-6) and got on the board first in the 27th minute with a 30-yd. blast off the foot of Meredith Teague...The killer came 22 seconds before halftime as Seattle Pacific converted on a corner kick to take a two-goal lead into the break...SPU all but put it away 2:59 into the second half, tallying on a ball deflected off a UCSD defender...Senior Natasha Belak-Berger gave the Tritons a glimmer of hope at 78:01, carrying the ball into the box and connecting from 12 yards out for her 13th goal of the year and 30th of her career...McGovern had seven saves on the day.

LeVIEUX, SCHOFIELD GO SATURDAY AT NCAA X-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPSUCSD will be represented by a pair of individual runners at Saturday's NCAA Division II Championships in Slippery Rock, PA...Senior Jake LeVieux will compete in the men's 10K race and redshirt freshman Bre Schofield will be in the women's 6K field...It will be the first time since 2001 that the Tritons will not have a team competing at the nationals but LeVieux and Schofield earned the trip to Slippery Rock by being the top individual finishers (not on one of the qualifying teams) at the NCAA West Regionals.

LeVieux was part of last year's men's team but this will be the first time on the national stage for Schofield...The latter has been UCSD's first runner home in every race this year while LeVieux has turned the trick in every race but one..Head Coach Nate Garcia feels both have legitimate shots at snagging All-America status, accorded the to 30 U.S. runners in each division, and feels Schofield might be capable of reaching the top 15...Both are Carlsbad, CA natives.

NIKE CUP NEXT UP FOR SWIMMERSLooking to build on the single NCAA D-II Championship qualifying mark it has accumulated to date, the Swimming teams will compete in Long Beach at the annual Nike Cup, Thursday through Saturday...According to Head Coach Scott McGihon's forecast, UCSD could return from Long Beach with as many as a dozen new female and eight new male qualifiers... Meanwhile, the Triton divers will be traveling to University of Arizona for the Wildcat Diving Invitational.

Last Friday, the Tritons were downed by Division I UC Santa Barbara...The Gaucho women prevailed, 157-104, and on the men’s side the result was 177.5-74.5...Sophomore Anju Shimura was a two-event winner---100 backstroke (58.63) and 200 backstroke (2:06.03)---for UCSD and the women also got victories from rising junior Carianne Cunningham in the 200 breaststroke (2:25.29) and freshman Alexandra Henley in the 500 freestyle (5:03.70)...The latter was also second in the 200 individual medley (2:08.93)...Meanwhile in men’s racing, versatile senior Steven Hardy touched second in both the 200 backstroke (1:56.04) and 200 individual medley (2:08.93).

FENCERS PUT AWAY UCI AND CAL TECHThe Fencing team thrashed UC Irvine and Cal Tech at UCSD's Main Gym Saturday...The Triton men, paced by a foil squad that was undefeated on the day, whipped UCI and Cal Tech by identical, 23-4, scores while the women defeated Cal Tech, 25-2, and UCI, 22-5, registering a perfect, 9-0, mark in epee against both foes...Foilists Michael Fong, Armin Chan and Max Griffin were all undefeated as were Bryan Kim (sabre) and Tom Daourin (epee)...For the women, Anne Schnecker (sabre) and Pilar Alicia (foil) ended the day unscathed...Coach Heidi Runyan's squad goes to Cal Tech this weekend for the NCAA West Invitational.

NEWS & NOTESThe Women's Tennis team posted a two-day combined singles record of 11-4 against Division I opponents from UC Riverside, Northern Arizona, UC Irvine and Montana at last weekend's UC Irvine Tournament... Junior shortstop Vance Albitz won a 2008 Rawlings Collegiate Gold Glove Award for his stellar defensive play last season...The Men’s Tennis team will be hosting the annual UC San Diego Winter Championships, a fund-raising tournament, Jan. 24-25 and Jan. 31-Feb. 1...For more information, call (858) 534-8457.